Airline industry is rolling out perks for affluent fliers

In addition to roomier airline seats and better onboard entertainment and food, affluent travelers are getting special treatment at airport terminals.

The lines are long at Los Angeles International Airport as anxious travelers… (Mark Boster, Los Angeles…)

If you are among America's well-to-do, you may have noticed that the airline industry has been rolling out the red carpet for you lately.

For good reason. The number of affluent travelers has risen in the last few years, according to a report by the travel marketing agency MMGY Global and research firm Harrison Group.

Defined as those with an annual household income of $250,000 or more, affluent travelers make up 6% of the leisure travel market, up from 4% in 2010, according to the report. Women constitute most of those travelers at 54%, up from 42% in 2010, the report said.

The airline industry has responded with roomier seats and better onboard entertainment and food.

But affluent travelers are also getting the royal treatment at airport terminals.

Delta recently expanded a program that uses Porsche Cayenne S. Hybrid vehicles to take what the airline calls "high-value" customers from one gate to another to make sure they don't miss their connecting flights.

The program began on a trial basis in Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in 2011 and has been expanded in the last month to Los Angeles International Airport, John F. Kennedy International and Minneapolis-St. Paul International.

"We've found a unique opportunity to surprise and delight customers while assisting customers between connecting flights," said Mike Henny, director of customer experience for Delta.

Meanwhile, American Airlines has expanded its Flagship Check-in program. The airline's elite passengers, such as international first-class travelers, are met at the curb by a sky captain and a ticket agent and are escorted through a special entrance into the terminal. Once inside, they get to cut to the front of the security screening lines.

The Flagship Check-in program is primarily for influential travelers who are invited to join by the airlines. The invited travelers have included the late film critic Roger Ebert and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, according to airline officials.

The program began at LAX a year ago and was expanded in the last few months to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, JFK and Miami International Airport. The next Flagship Check-in entrance is expected to be added at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in the next year or so.

Money left at TSA checkpoints

That loose change that you dump into the plastic bins at the airport security checkpoints may not seem like much, but it adds up. And now Washington is wrestling with the question of what to do with the change you leave behind.

In fiscal 2012, the change collected at airports across the country totaled about $531,000, with about $32,000 of that coming in foreign currency, according to the Transportation Security Administration. At Los Angeles International Airport, the nation's third-busiest airport, passenger change added up to nearly $22,000 in the last fiscal year, according to the TSA.

The TSA has been putting the money into its "aviation security fund" to translate airport signs into various languages, among other overhead costs.

Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) put forward a bill recently to set aside the loose change for use by nonprofit groups that run airport facilities where members of the military and their families can rest while traveling.

"Travelers' lost change is unappropriated dollars that should be put to good use," Miller said during a House Homeland Security Committee meeting in October.

The bill was amended and approved in committee last week and sent to the full House for consideration.

Researching holiday travel options

More than half of America's travelers rely on a smartphone to research their holiday travel plans.

But where they do that research depends on their gender, according to a survey of about 1,000 Americans by the travel website Priceline.com.

Women are more likely than men to research holiday travel in bed by a margin of 50% to 45%, according to the survey.

Men are more likely than women to research travel options in the bathroom by a margin of 28% to 16%, the survey found.